This is Weed and this is Wack with WOWDY Gardens. We’re an organic gardening show Focusing on do it yourself in the garden and growing things that we like to eat and one exactly the things we like to eat and one of the things that’s sort of easy to do is Take a clipping from a fig tree. We have lots of fig trees growing in our neighborhood first thing you need to do is make friends with someone who has a fig tree and and then make a clipping and
Cutting foot off the tip of the branch and route that and put in some water put on the windowsill Right it sounds simple, but it literally is that simple Take a cutting and put it in a jar of water and leave it on the windowsill and keep on changing the water is needed and Do a couple just to be safe, but eventually it will root and
Windowsill transplant it to a pot when the weather is When the when the weather is what about 70 degrees easily well and and the thing has lots of roots You don’t want to transplant unless it has lots of lots of roots right when you transplant trying try not to upset those roots Yeah, or you can go to the nursery and buy a fig as well and follow the instructions on on how to prune it
My wife Jenny about our fig tree a Turkish fig that We’ve had for 25 years now. Did she get it locally? No, she bought it. I I’m pretty sure she bought it on her way back from Virginia and at a nursery at a nursery and Brought it home and planted it and it’s been prolific. It’s a matter of fact
my wife took a Creative writing class and one of she wrote an essay that was published on on this very fig tree and Are you gonna give us a little excerpt? Well, let me just read the last sentence of the first paragraph during this season meaning the season of ripe figs It is true. I love figs more than I love my husband. Anyway, she really writes well about
Growing this fig tree and say I love is true. I love figs more than I love you But it’s a great essay look it up Jenny Apostle And you’ll and figs and you’ll find her essay But yeah that fig tree I just love it I loved my favorite time to eat from the fig tree is before I play tennis and
An hour or so before I play tennis I go out and I pick a couple off the vine vine excuse me shrub shrub and Vine is a figure speech And I swear I feel like I play better tennis and have more energy. It’s anti-inflammatory. It’s a very good anti-inflammatory fruit and I like to eat it fresh off the off the plant and my wife D likes to dehydrate
Well, she’s an excellent cook she can do anything and then put them in a jar and eat them later on But yeah, do not waste your figs folks. Do not and I’ve always been fascinated by the fig in literature, you know, Adam Covered with his little fig leaf and Eve that’s right here first bikini the fig leaf bikini going there Right, I sort of think of that when I when I look at my fig tree in the big leaf
That I sprout on that thing. That’s right And if you wanted to plant a biblical plant in your yard if big is a great 100 plant other than that in season I like to just chop them up and add them to a whatever salad garden salad I’m making and oh It’s great with a little bit of goat cheese and you know when Jenny planted our fig tree. I don’t think she added much as far as You’re right and it’s
Real clay is all clay around here, but this particular area. They’re fairly hardy and one more thing before we finish about The fig tree it’s been around for a long time. So it’s seen my kids grow and everything That’s right It the fig roots found its way into my garden beds and became a real problem and So every season I would have to chop the roots off a little root pruning root pruning to
Keep them out of my garden bed, but they’re the roots are so gross so fast I gave up and I raised my one of the reasons I have raised beds is because the fig tree Was was getting all my nutrients out of my my beds and if you find that your fig patch does not is not putting off enough fruit for you a good way to increase fruit production is to give it a root pruning which would be to do exactly what we did is is take a
And go around on the outside of the shrub Whether it’s a single trunk shrub or a patch of of woody ground cover shrub like Plants as I’ve seen both types of figs out there just slice those roots all the way around and that’ll increase fruit Okay, and after a couple years you’ll have a mature tree that will need to be pruned What’s the rule of thumb on pruning?
How much of the plant? Well, if it’s really large like yours and mine and it has multiple trunks Then you want to take out one third of the largest growth Each year for three years in a row and that that will encourage new growth to come up from the base of the plant right you can do that with lilacs as well right well folks prune your fig tree because what happened to me is it got so tall
that all the fruit became it was all of a sudden out of reach for me food yeah, and the Tree would rattle between the squirrels and the birds and yeah, no one likes that Yeah, so I’m I’m and I really need to do some work on pruning on my tree Okay, this what do we talk about here? Of course my wife saw article about a 20 year old fig tree. She planted which is just great reading I suggest it things you very well
in this area, right They’re easy to clone so you really don’t need to you can be cheap like we like to be you don’t need to go to the nursery you can Take some cuttings and put them in water and once you have a mature tree You have to trim the roots and prune the roots and prune the top. Yeah, they keep keep it so it doesn’t grow too big
Much for listening and again, we’d like to thank Eric and wowd for having 4.3 LP yes To come up to come radio.org. Okay folks are signing off. This is whack from where the gardens. This is weed See you next week. We’ll be back!